


this ain't what you usually do (a girl like me is new for you)

by outofaith



Category: 13 Reasons Why (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Fluff, Fraternities & Sororities, Greek Life, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Underage Drinking, Weed, justin and zach are 16, no bryce and no monty, ofc is in uni
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24240121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/outofaith/pseuds/outofaith
Summary: Zach and Justin sneak into an Uni party at a Sorority House and, at some point, they fall in love with the president. Well.
Relationships: Justin Foley/Original Female Character(s), Zach Dempsey/Justin Foley, Zach Dempsey/Original Female Character(s), zach dempsey/justin foley/original female character
Kudos: 6





	this ain't what you usually do (a girl like me is new for you)

Bella looked to the sky above her and, as the heavy thrum of the bass from the party echoed around her, took a long drag of her cigarette. Her hair was messy from dancing, her curls falling around her shoulders wildly, her cheeks were flushed from the too strong drinks and from laughing. She smiled as a couple of freshers made their way past her giggling and rolled her eyes as she remembered how much fun she had at her first party at Uni. “Are you staying out here all night or are you coming back inside?” She heard Claire’s slightly annoyed voice.

“I’m just having a smoke, want one?” She offered and her friend pondered for a moment. “Can’t,” Came the answer. “My head’s already spinning a bit. Don’t take too long out here or you’re gonna miss Linn drinking Chase and Luke under the table.” She laughed and, just like that, she was back inside the house.

Bella shook her head at her friend, she should probably work on getting a buzz going soon, maybe take Mark up on his offer and have a quicky, it’s been a while. She was just finishing her cigarette when she spotted them. Two boys, looking painfully out of place at a party on a Sorority House. She guessed they were cute. The taller one had black hair and huge arms that made her mind come up with thousands of different scenarios, all of them involving those arms picking her up and holding her against a wall. The other one had blue eyes so bright she could drown on them. They were probably freshmen, she guessed from the way they were huddling together and watching everything around them with big eyes. She walked up to where they were standing on the opposite side of the back porch. “Hey, you two alright?”

The two kids seemed a bit startled but she could see them trying to play it cool, she smirked. “You’ve been standing there for quite some time and I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to drink from your cups, not just stare at them.” She smiled at them. “I’m Bella, I’m guessing you two are new around here?”

“Uh, yeah. Yes.” The taller one replied and she arched a perfect eyebrow. “I’m Zach, this is Justin.”

“Ah,” She hummed. “Well, you two don’t seem like you’re having too much fun. Is this your first party since you started Uni? I’m guessing that ‘cause it’s the first one of the term and you look like freshers.” They tensed a bit at her words and she narrowed her eyes a little but soon enough the one with the blue eyes answered.

“We’re actually just here with his cousin, you know, getting to know the campus and stuff.” At that, she grinned. “Well, I can’t have two guys coming to my house and not getting drunk in the process.”

“Your house?” Zach asked her and she nodded. “Sure, this is the Kappa Alpha House and I’m the president.” She tilted her head and looked them over. “C’mon, you two need new drinks and I sure as hell need one, too.”

With that, they followed her inside the house where the music was loud and every once in awhile someone would bump on them. They got new drinks, then some more. And after that, she didn’t remember a thing apart from laughing and kissing and leading the two boys into her bedroom upstairs.

She woke up to a killer hungover and her body feeling sore. Blinking slowly and rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes, she assessed that, yes, there were indeed two bodies on her bed. She never really allowed her one night stands to actually stay the night but as she looked outside her window it seemed like the sun was just coming up, so she decided to let it pass. She got up from her bed, pulling her panties and a shirt with the Greek Letters on the front and perched herself on the windowsill so she could smoke, hoping it would make her headache go away, if only a little bit. She was on the second drag when she heard a groan coming from her bed followed by another one and she chuckled. “There’re painkillers on the table next to the bed, help yourselves.”

The two boys seemed to slowly piece the previous events together. Blue eyes, Justin, she remembered, came up to her after pulling on his underwear. “Can I have some of that?” Came the question and she nodded, handing him the pack.

“Thought you quit?” The other one said, Zach, her brain reminded her, big arms and broad shoulders. “Just sometimes, I guess.” Justin said.

She watched the two of them as Justin smoked and as soon as he was done he looked at her with guilty eyes. “Uh, sorry, we’re gonna be out of your hair now.” He said as he started to pull on his clothes, his friend doing the same thing. She watched them with a lazy smile, bending over to pick up what looked to be a driver’s license. “You dropped this.” She said and just as she was handing it over she got a look at the ID and froze. Her eyes snapped up to the boys in front of her and if they seemed confused by her sudden change of mood, it was gone and replaced by wide eyes as they caught a glimpse at what was in her hands. “Zachary Dempsey? How old did you say you were?” The taller boy seemed at a loss for words so his friend answered. “Uh, seventeen.” She clicked her tongue and turned her gaze to him. “Seventeen? Seventeen when?”

The kid closed his eyes and Zach seemed resigned. “Seventeen in two months.” She nodded at Justin then. “Justin will be seventeen in six months.” Bella felt like groaning so that’s exactly what she did. Fucking hell. “Sixteen? You two are sixteen? And that didn’t seem like an important detail to bring up last night?” She turned to look at them again and saw them wincing. “Do you know how old I am? I’m twenty-two. Oh, fucking hell. Sixteen.” She walked back to the window, deciding she needed another cigarette to deal with this shit. “Fucking hell.” She grumbled.

“Look, it’s not against the law, you know? And, I mean, we’re not telling anyone if you don’t want us to.” Bella had to snort. “I know it’s not against the law, I’m not worried about that. What I am worried about is the fact that I just fucked two high school kids, oh fuck.” She groaned and took another drag.

“I’m sorry.” She heard a soft voice behind her and turned to see Justin looking at her with big blue eyes. “We didn’t mean to lie or anything, it just didn’t come up. Besides, we were having a really good time. I know I was, you didn’t like it?” She sighed and finished her cigarette, rubbing her temples. “It’s not that. Of course I had fun and the sex was great.” She chuckled as they smirked. “It’s just that you two are so young, what are you? Sophomores?” 

“Juniors.” Zach provided the answer and she nodded. “Right, well, I suppose there’s not much for us to do about it now so, do you two need a ride home or something?”

“I, uh, I drove here, actually, so that’s okay.” Zach said and she nodded at him; They lapsed into silence for a couple of minutes until Zach spoke up again. “Look, we should be going but I had a really good time last night and I’m pretty sure Justin did as well.” He said and his friend nodded at his side. “Could we have your number or something? We could do this again, maybe?”

He seemed so unsure and both of them looked painfully young, Bella’s mind was working a mile a minute coming up with several different reasons as to why she should say no and send these kids home and never see them again. For starters, they were sixteen, which, not illegal, but still left a gap of six years between them, even if they were turning seventeen later this year. She knew she wouldn’t go to jail and the sex was really amazing, also, they were insanely pretty for two teenagers. She bit the inside of her cheek as she pondered the alternatives. It was all for nothing, anyway, because she ended up doing what she always did, ignoring all reason in favor of giving it a go. “Sure, why not?” She replied and they grinned at her.

Bella sighed in relief when she finally finished a paper that had been giving her a headache for the past two weeks. She looked at her phone where there were five unread messages from a groupchat. Apparently Justin and Zach decided that the three of them needed one, she wasn’t complaining, the two boys were fun to talk to and it did made things considerably easier when it came to agreeing on when to see one another.

She discovered that Justin and Zach were childhood friends, that they were juniors in Liberty High where both of them played basketball and football and that they had a group of friends that seemed to always be around. They met a couple of times on the two months that followed the party, always at the Sorority House until one day they came up to her and shyly asked if she would like to go out for coffee. So they went, and it was fun, surprisingly they had a lot of things in common apart from what they liked in bed. The barista at the coffee place near the campus gave her a thumbs up when she saw all of them kissing and Bella rolled her eyes pretending to be annoyed. No one even blinked when they were out and about, they weren’t in a relationship but even if they were, poly relationships were extremely common, people didn’t gave it a second thought.

She pulled on a sweater and made her way downstairs where her sisters were all sprawled over the many couches of the living room, some guys from Delta Chi who were close with them were there as well, everyone lazily drunk and bemoaning the rain that decided to fall that night. “Thought you were never coming out of your cave, Bella.” Linn giggled at her and she groaned. “That fucking paper, I swear to God, finally finished it though.”

“Well, good.” Claire nodded and handed her a glass of wine which she was thankful for. “Where are your boys though? You never introduced us all. Only time I saw them after the party when you were all over one another was when they were sneaking out.” She pouted.

“Why would I introduce you to them anyway?” Bella asked as she took a sip of her wine. “Because you never let your booty-calls stay the night and most certainly never go out with them on dates.” Luke pointed out from his place near the fireplace. “How do you even know that?” She asked and he leered at her. “Don’t tell me, you slept with the barista, didn’t you?” At his smug look she rolled her eyes.

“So, since you won’t introduce us to your lovely boyfriends, I think we should look them up on Instagram. Anyone remember the names?” Linn said and Bella gripped her glass a bit tighter. “You really think that’s necessary, though?”

“Of course!” Linn looked at her with an affronted expression. “We always look up everyone who spends the night for longer than two weeks. It’s been two months now, Bella.” She had a mock hurt look on her face and Bella sighed. “I’m not telling you their names.”

“No need, we all heard the three of you moaning times enough to pick it up. One of them is quite loud.” Claire declared and snickers spread around the room. “I know one of them is called Zach, unfortunately my room is just down the hall from yours.”

Bella glared at her and watched as Linn typed Zach’s name on her followers list. “There are a lot of Zachs following Bella, I remember he’s tall and I definitely remember his arms.” She murmured and Bella flipped her off. “Found him!” She cheered and started scrolling down his feed, a small group gathering behind her to look over her shoulder. “Oh, he’s hot. What’s the name of the other one? Is it Justin?” She asked looking up at the others.

“Yeah, I think so.” Chase nodded as he took a hit from the blunt between his fingers and Linn spoke up once again. “There’re a lot of pictures of the two of them together.” She hummed. “What’s Liberty High, though?” At that, Bella closed her eyes and took a bracing breath to the teasing that would be sure to follow. “It’s a High School, my sister goes there.” Mallory piped up from the corner of the room. “Why?” Linn looked puzzled. “There’re a lot of pictures of them with letter jackets from this place.” Mallory stood up and came to the couch, sitting beside Linn. “Let me see.” She said and grinned. “Oh, those are Zach Dempsey and Justin Foley, they go to school with my younger sister.”

Bella gulped down her wine and topped her glass as she pretended to ignore the curious and mocking looks directed at her. “You mean like in High School, Mal?” Claire asked, her voice amused. “Yeah, apparently they’re hot shit, too. My sister was telling me just the other day about a rumour going around their school about the two of them dating someone.”

“Bella,” Luke looked at her as he pushed his sunglasses, even though they were indoors and it was already dark out, to the top of his head, his voice barely containing his laughter. “Are you fucking two high school kids?” She stared at him unamused and he barked out a laugh. “This is amazing. Are they seniors at least?”

“No, I’m pretty sure they’re juniors, though they are sixteen, I think. Candace, my sister, told me about a birthday party coming up for one of them.” Mallory helpfully added and Bella considered the possibility of strangling her friend. “Oh fuck, Bella.” Claire laughed as she looked at her and back at the pictures. “Well, I can see why you went for them, though, they’re fucking hot, I just didn’t know you were looking into adoption.” Bella rolled her eyes again and glared at the blonde as her sisters and the brothers laughed around the room. “Fuck off, Claire, like you never fucked someone younger.” The blue eyed girl laughed again. “Not someone in High School, jesus, you’re such a cougar.” She laughed and Bella sighed.

She guessed there wasn’t much to be done now, so she sat down between Luke and Chase and gladly accepted the blunt they offered her. 

“Oh, fuck.” Bella tried to catch her breath. She was laying beside Zach and Justin’s head was pillowed on her stomach. “That was fucking amazing.” She heard Justin’s breathless voice and huffed a laugh, her hand coming to his hair and scratching lightly. They stayed like that for a couple more minutes until she decided she couldn’t fight the urge for a cigarette any longer. “Move over a little bit, baby.” She murmured and he rolled to the side with a whine that brought a small smile to her face.

She perched herself by the window and lit a cigarette, her body covered by a big tee shirt that she was sure was Zach’s. She looked over at them and came to the realization that they were actually in a relationship of sorts. The three of them talked everyday, they went out a number of times and she was pretty sure Zach wouldn’t ask her to meet his mom if that wasn’t the case. “Want to tell me what’s going on in that pretty head of yours, kid?” She asked as Justin inched closer and silently asked for her cigarette. She noticed he only smoked when he was stressed out, it seemed to be an ongoing thing. “Hey,” She urged when he shook his head and looked outside. “C’mon, it’s me, you can tell me.”

He tensed at her side and she looked over his head to where Zach was sitting up in bed and eyeing them cautiously. “Alright, what’s going on? You’ve been tense every since you got here and don’t think I didn’t see the bruises on your ribs that I’m pretty sure are not from sports.” She eyed them seriously and Justin seemed to deflate under her hard look. His eyes were lowered as he sat down beside Zach, the taller boy was quick to catch his eye and speak up. “It’s just Bella, Justin, you can tell her, you know that, right?” And, okay, now she was starting to get really worried because what the fuck was going on to make a sixteen year old boy look like the weight of the world was placed on his shoulders. She put out her cigarette and approached the bed, carefully sitting down and taking his hand between her smaller ones. “You can tell me anything, you know that, don’t you? Both of you, that is. You can trust me.” She said in a soft voice. “We’ve been doing this thing between us for almost four months now, you can talk to me.”

He looked into her green eyes like he was searching for something, then his gaze flickered over to Zach who nodded at him and finally sighed, his eyes lowered again and he stared at their clasped hands. “It’s just my mom and her boyfriend, it’s a messed up situation.” He started and told her with many pauses and deep breaths, his eyes filling up with tears. He told her about his mother’s boyfriend and about the physical abuse he suffered there. Told her about how his mother never did anything to stop it and about how most nights the guy, Seth, would lock him out of his house leaving him without a place to sleep. Told her about how he would sneak into Zach’s house so his mom wouldn’t worry and about how somedays he would barely have anything to eat unless he was over at the Sorority House or at Zach’s. When he was finished, Bella felt like her blood was boiling, she felt torn between punching something or calling her dad so their legal team could get that scumbag arrested. In the end, she did none of those things, because the boy in front of her, her boyfriend, was eyeing her with scared eyes. “Oh, baby,” She said, her own eyes welling up with tears. “Come here.” She pulled him into a hug and his body seemed to sag into hers, she held him tightly against her chest and felt Zach coming closer to them and wrapping his arms around the two of them.

They stayed like that for long moments, at some point Justin’s tears started to fall and she couldn’t stop her own. They moved until they were laying down on the bed and fell into a quiet moment. “You can always come here, Justin. I drove you two to Zach’s place a couple of times, it’s not that far from here, anytime you want or need to, you can come here, or call me and I’ll pick you up. Both of you.” She said and his hair tickled her chin as he nodded. They stayed like that until they were on the verge of falling asleep. “Do you guys need to get home?” She murmured as to not disturb the quietness of the moment.

“No, why?” Zach answered and she turned her head to the right so she could look at him, a small smile playing on her lips. “Do you want to stay for the weekend? It’s gonna be a quiet one, for once.” He leant forward and kissed her softly. “I don’t think my mom will mind and I have some clothes in my car, so,” He shrugged and nodded. She looked down at Justin and he smiled up at the two of them. “I’d like that.”

“Well, then I guess we should go downstairs and help out with dinner.” This time, both boys looked at her with matching puzzled expressions. “It’s Friday, so it means that it’s family night. We do it once a month, everyone gets together and cook dinner, a couple of boys from Delta Chi swing by as well, mostly Chase and Luke, they rushed for the frat the same year as Claire, Linn and I.” She explained as her fingers continued to card through Justin’s hair.

“That’s why you’re all so close?” He asked and she nodded. “Our first year they had us all working together on a car wash to raise money for an elderly home and we ended up becoming friends.” She groaned as she heard Claire yell at her from downstairs. “We really need to go down or they’ll all barge in here, probably in the next five minutes.” Justin looked up at her with big puppy eyes and she shook her head. “I mean it, baby.” She said, the petname bringing the same adorable blush to his cheeks as always, they sighed but got up and started getting dressed.

The rain was falling hard outside and it didn’t look like it would let up so soon, Bella was leaning against the kitchen door as she looked over the room, it was a big room, thankfully, because almost everyone was there, trying to give their input on dinner, much to Linn’s chagrin. They were all dressed in their finest pairs of sweatpants and old shirts with their letters printed on the front, Chase and Luke dressed much like them only Luke was again sporting his sunglasses, she hid her wide grin behind her wine glass. “Bella, help!” Linn cried from the stove where she was stirring the meat, she didn’t need to be given context for her friend’s plea. “Claire, for fuck’s sake, leave Linn alone.”

“But Bella, it’s not fair, she’s going on and on about her recipe being better than mine.” Bella winced at the whine she could hear and cringed as soon as her next words left her mouth. “Claire, sweetie, you know I love you, right?” Claire looked at her suspiciously. “I sense a ‘but’ coming next.” Bella smiled sympathetically at the blonde girl. “But, you’re not the best in the kitchen. I’m sorry!” She hurried to add. “That’s absolutely not fair!” Claire cried indignantly. “I’m a great cook!” Her eyed widened as she took notice of the muffled snickers going around the kitchen. “I am!”

“Claire, you burn your toast every morning.” Mallory pointed out and Eva followed the statement. “And ramen last Monday.” Claire stared at them open-mouthed. “Not to mention we all had to go out on the cold and pouring rain while the firemen stormed into the House because you got high and decided to make pancakes at two in the morning last week.” She added and Claire pouted.

“That’s not fair at all.” She grumbled and Bella walked up to her friend to give her a quick cuddle. “Don’t worry love, you make a mean Margarita.” Claire preened at the praised and promptly sipped from the glass of wine in her hand that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. “I really am the best at that.”

The night went on and soon enough they were all tipsy and laughing at the mandatory Britney Spears performance that Mallory forced all of them into doing every time. She felt an arm going around her shoulders and another around her waist and knew who they belonged to going only by the ever present smell of weed. “You scored yourself two good ones, huh?” Luke hummed from her right side and she smiled. “You think so?” He nodded and Chase snorted from her other side. “Absolutely. If they’re willing to put up with that.” He said motioning to where her sisters were pretending to stumble over themselves so Justin and Zach would support them and give them an excuse to feel their arms. “It must mean they like you a lot.” She laughed at him and Eva’s voice ringed from the middle of the dancing group. “No wonder you didn’t realize they’re sixteen, Bella, they’re fucking ripped.” Her voice was awed as all of the girls ogled the defined abs that, somehow, they managed to see after convincing the boys to pull up their shirts.

“Would you please leave my boyfriends alone? And I mean all of you.” She replied and got a bunch of smug grins for her trouble but one look at the fond and soft looks decorating her boys’ faces was enough for her to ignore the teasing from her friends and wink at them, hiding her own fond expression as she tossed back her wine. Between this group of drunk sorority girls and frat boys, Zach and Justin seemed to fit right in, laughing like they didn’t have a care in the world. She saw the tension on their shoulders sometimes, she knew that what Justin had told her earlier this day was just the beginning, she was still fuming from the revelations, that someone so young had to deal with all that crap. She couldn’t prevent it from happening, but she could provide him with a safe place to stay, both of them; a place where there would always be love and laughter and, apparently, sorority girls willing to feel them up. Well.

“Okay, how do I look?” Bella asked as she stopped at the living room entrance, both her hands resting on her hips. “Like a slutty Kardashian.” Claire declared without even looking up and Bella rolled her eyes. “Fuck off, you always say that.” That made her friend look up and, when she did, she let out a low whistle. “You look fucking hot. And a bit slutty. Where are you going anyway?” Her friend asked as she accepted the joint that was being offered to her by Luke.

“Justin and Zach have a thing tonight.” Immediately all eyes were on her, eyeing her outfit. “A _thing_?” Linn asked. “What type of thing can they have that require you to wear that?”

Bella rolled her eyes. She guessed she really had put on a lot of effort, to be fair, she always dressed up to all events, but still, it would be the first time her boyfriends’ friends would be seeing them together. Zach and Justin told her they had admited to their group of friends that they were seeing someone who didn’t go to their school and decided that the after party for their basketball game would be the perfect opportunity to introduce them all. So, yes, Bella thought that if she really was going to meet her boyfriends’ friends, from _high school_ , she should look her best, it just wouldn’t do for a couple of high school girls to look better than her. Maybe she was overthinking this. Still, she had a point to make. “A basketball game.” She muttered and promptly rolled her eyes in face of the muffled laughter from her friends. “Oh, fuck off. You lot looked pretty happy when you were feeling them up the other day.”

“Territorial, darling?” Claire teased, but her eyes were fond. “You look great. I just don’t get why you’re wearing heels to a high school basketball game.” Bella groaned and perched herself on the arm of the nearest couch, Chase was sitting by her side and offered her the joint which she accepted without hesitation. “I’m meeting their friends today, I have to look good. It’s a rule.”

“Oh my god, Bella.” Linn groaned at her, making her pout. “Alright, let’s see, you look really good, I love those shoes and the dress makes your boobs look even bigger. No bra, right?” She inquired and Bella made and offended noise. “What do you take me for? Never a bra!” She declared with a laugh and heard many agreements around the room.

She was wearing a low cut sleeveless black dress, it showed off her figure pretty nicely, it was a favorite of hers and, apparently, from her boyfriends, given their reactions to it the time they saw her wearing it at a party. So, the neckline was a deep and open V, the dress was tight, the left side ended higher on her thigh than the right side, it accentuated her hourglass figure, her slim waist hugged nicely by the fabric of the dress. As for her shoes, Linn called them her “fuck me shoes” but she always flipped her off, they were high heeled and made her legs look even longer. Her curly hair was falling soflty down her back and her green eyes looked even brighter with her carefully done make-up. “Fuck, I have to go.” She muttered as she looked at the hour on her phone. “I look good right?”

“Fucking hell, Bella, yes, you look smoking hot, I would try to chat you up if we weren’t friends.” Luke moaned as he plucked the joint from her fingers and took a long hit. “Now go and make all those high school kids try their very best to not pop a boner as you walk by.” She laughed at him and kissed his cheek on her way out of the room. “Love you, Luke!” She said and promptly flipped Claire off when she caught the mock hurt look on the blonde’s face.

It was alright; she could do this. Bella thought to herself as she was halfway through with her cigarette. She was leaning against her car just outside Liberty High where the game was taking place. She caught more than one curious look thrown over at her from students, teachers and parents alike. She pulled her leather jacket closer to her body as she reached the end of her smoke. She berated herself for being nervous, she had done worst things than going to a high school game! She was twenty-two, she could do this. Bella contemplated getting back into her BMW and driving away, surely she could come up with an excuse. She groaned under her breath and rolled her eyes, she couldn’t bear the hurt look in Zach’s eyes and she sure as hell couldn’t lie to Justin’s puppy eyes. She picked up her purse, locked her car and walked inside.

“Hey, look over there.” Zach whispered in his ear and Justin followed his gaze to where, surely, Bella was attracting a lot of looks in her tight black dress and high heels. She sat in the middle of the stands, she looked for all the world like she belonged there, like the stares and whispers didn’t mean a thing, but he could see how her eyes lit up when she caught their eyes. “I thought she wouldn’t come.” He admited and Zach rolled his eyes down at him. They didn’t have much more time to talk because soon enough the game started.

They won, thankfully, Zach thought as they made their way inside the changing room, everyone cheering and laughing. They took quick showers and were getting dressed, the locker room chatter as loud as ever. “Anyone saw the hot girl on the stands?” He heard and that made him pay attention. “Fucking hot, looked older though.” Someone said and he gave Justin a sideways glance.

“I think she’s at Uni,” One of the guys said. “I went out with Candace, you know?” Jason started. “So her sister’s in Uni and, get this, in a Sorority. She showed me some pictures and all, I’m pretty sure I saw that girl in one of them.” He concluded and there was laughter around the locker room. “Sorority girl, huh? What do you think she’s doing here then?” Someone asked and Jason shrugged. “Dunno, Candace said she was sleeping with someone from here.”

At that, Zach and Justin shared a look and a smile. “Well, don’t know who it is that she’s screwing, but he’s sure as fuck is lucky, got a look at her dress? Fuck.” They heard a low whistle as they gathered their stuff to go meet Bella outside. “Yo, Dempsey!” Zach heard and turned around. “You and Foley going to the party?”

“Yeah, man.” Zach said and draped his arm around Justin’s slimmer shoulders. Everyone at Liberty knew they were a _thing_. They came out as a couple just as their sophomore year was reaching its end and have been going strong ever since. He supposed it was a long time coming, his mother didn’t even pretend to be surprised and his dad rolled his eyes and laughed when he saw how nervous him and Justin were, May was delighted, she loved Justin and Zach suspected it was because she could rope him into doing anything she wanted from playing dress up to having tea parties with six different stuffed toys. Then when they met Bella everything just seemed like it had clicked into place. Him and Justin were happy and they loved one another, but then Bella arrived like a hurricane and swept them from their feet. The day they took her to meet Zach’s parents was a nice memory, his mother did try to be stern but it was impossible not to like Bella, soon enough his parents were asking when she was coming around again and May fell in love with her when Bella taught her how to do this complicated braid on her hair. “See you there, man.” Zach waved and turned him and Justin around and out of the locker room.

“Think she’s going to be mad ‘cause we made her wait?” Justin asked from his side and Zach hugged him a little bit closer. It made him furious everytime Justin sounded small and unsure and afraid of their reactions to him because he knew it came from his good-for-nothing mother and fucking Meth Seth, he knew it drived Bella mad as well, but they always did their very best to remind Justin he didn’t have to be scared of them. “I think that she’s outside, leaning back on her car and smoking, making it hard for a lot of people not to stare at her on that dress.” He grinned and Justin laughed.

Sure enough, as they reached the parking lot, Bella was doing exactly that. She looked breathtaking and Zach smirked to himself when he heard Justin swear under his breath. “You two were fucking amazing!” She told them when they got closer to her. “Thanks, love.” He said and bent down to kiss her lightly and stepped to the side so Justin could do the same. “You look fucking hot.” Justin said matter-of-factly. “Everyone was talking about you.”

Bella’s smirk was much too smug as she heard that and Zach laughed a bit. “Good. So, I hear there’s a party?” She prompted and they nodded. “It’s nothing like the parties at the House, though.” Justin told her and her laugh was light and soft. “Well, of course not. You don’t have Chase and Luke making fools of themselves in front of everyone and Linn drinking more than the two of them together.” She tilted her head. “Wanna go with my car or yours?” She directed her question at him and he shook his head. “Gave my keys to Jeff, his car’s at the shop, besides, I knew you were driving, so.” Bella nodded and motioned them to get inside. “Alright, let’s go then, tell me where to go.”

They drove until they arrived at Jess’ house, by the time they got there, everyone else was already there. They would have arrived earlier but Zach’s mom saw them together and they had to make a quick stop at their place so they could catch up. “You look like you’re ready to turn the car around and bolt.” Justin pointed out. “Is everything okay?”

She sighed and feigned nonchalance as she looked into the rearview mirror to fix her lipstick and her hair. “Oh, I’m fine.” She said and as the silence stretched she sighed again. “I’m just wondering what’s gonna be like, you know? It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a high school party.” Justin looked at him and from the back seat and Zach reached over to grip her small hand, her nails painted a deep red. Bella rolled her eyes at herself and promptly exited the car. The two of them shared a look and shrugged, following her. At some point, Bella had decided to leave her jacket inside the car, so now she was sporting only the black dress and red shoes and Zach was sure there wasn’t going to be a single person not staring at her tonight. She took Justin’s hand and Zach’s arm went around her shoulders and, together, they walked inside the house. Just as expected, as soon as they entered, he could feel eyes on them but by now he was used to it.

“Hey, Jess!” He called and directed the three of them to where his friends were, near the back doors. “Hey guys.” He greeted and they all smiled at him and Justin but their eyes were curious as they rested on Bella. “Hey,” Jess responded and huffed when he didn’t say anything else. “Hi, I’m Jess, welcome to my house.” She greeted Bella with a smile and Bella smiled back at her. “I’m Bella, nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you all.”

“So, Zach, Justin, want to introduce us all or...” Jeff said and Justin smiled. “Sure, this is Bella, Bella, these are Jeff, Scott, Jess, Sheri, Hannah, Clay, Alex and Charlie.” He pointed at each one of them and they kept staring at them. “Bella’s our girlfriend.” Zach finally said and their friends grinned. “Cool, we’ve been wondering what was going on with these two, they were acting weird, always disappearing.” Sheri said and smiled at Bella. “What school do you go to, then? How did you guys meet?”

Bella looked at the two of them as if she wished she could strangle them, but quickly regained her composure and smiled back at Sheri. “I’m in Uni, actually, we met at a party at my Sorority.” Sheri’s eyes widened a bit and Zach saw Jeff trying to contain his laughter by biting his lip. Apparently, Jeff was great at figuring things out and got the two of them spilling the story about Bella three weeks ago. “Oh,” Hannah said and tilted her head. “You just started then? That’s nice.” Bella squeezed his hand tightly and he knew she was wishing it was his neck so he dropped a kiss to the top of her head as an apology. 

“Actually, I’m the president, I’m a senior now.” She said and Zach was torn between whacking Jeff for laughing and prying his hand from Bella’s before she broke his fingers. “That’s, wow.” Jess said quietly and then a big grin spread across her face. “Leave to the two of you to sneak into a Sorority party and scoring the president.” Her laugh was light and immediately put everyone else at ease; soon enough they were all talking and they were bombarding Bella with questions about Uni and Greek Life and Bella looked relieved.

“Well, that went well.” He heard from his side and looked at Jeff, his eyes full of mirth. “Because you’re not the one with the nearly crushed fingers.” He replied, but there was a smile playing on his face.

They had been by the Sorority House many times, had met all of Bella’s friends, her family and she had met his family as well. They had been to parties together and went out on dates. Had deep conversations perched on her bedroom window as she smoked and Justin stole the cigarette from her fingers. They very quickly understood that they had a place in her life, an important place, just as she was a big part of their own lifes. They were nervous about tonight, about introducing Bella to their own friends, but, as Zach looked at Bella sharing stories about a feminist rally with Jess, Sheri and Hannah and trading tales about music with Alex, he figured that they would be just fine.


End file.
